The Border Army Lives and Dies Together! Burn Me to Ashes!

[Chapter 16: The Border Army Lives and Dies Together! Burn Me to Ashes! In the dead of night, your thoughts churned, and sleep eluded you.]

[You looked up at the moon. This vast world felt so real.]

[And yet, it was only a simulation.]

[Sun Cheng'en was someone you admired.]

[He governed his army with strict discipline, its rules as hard as iron. At most, the soldiers under him had a few roughneck types like Old Liu, but they only dared act like hoodlums within the camp. Anyone who dared harm the common people had been beheaded by Sun Cheng'en without mercy—not one was spared.]

[He was well-versed in military strategy and deployed troops like a god. Over ten years, without relying on reinforcements, his hundred-thousand-strong border army had sacrificed eighty thousand men to hold back Dashiguo's million-strong army, beheading more than three hundred thousand enemies!]

[As for losing cities, that was because he was human, not a god. Without strategic depth, a hundred thousand soldiers facing the enemy head-on would have been wiped out long ago.]

[Tomorrow would be the moment this heroic general met his end. Tonight, you could not sleep.]

[As you wandered about, you reached the military camp near the South Gate.]

[Whenever the soldiers saw you, they saluted.]

[In the soldiers' eyes, you were a legendary figure as well.]

[Everyone wanted to know how your brain had grown—how could your memory possibly be this good?]

[Not even Sun Cheng'en could remember the names of a hundred thousand people, but you could.]

[That fact alone was enough to leave the low-ranking soldiers utterly dazzled.]

["Li Ergou, have you eaten? Good, good! There'll even be wine tonight!"]

["Zhao Tiedan, has that arrow wound from last time gotten any better? Don't drink if it hasn't healed!"]

["Song Gua, gambling again? If the general finds out, he'll have you beaten with eighty military canes!"]

[As you walked on, you saw a group of soldiers gathered around a roaring bonfire, copying and writing at several tables.]

[Looking closely, you saw that they were Sun Cheng'en's personal guards.]

[These men possessed high Martial Dao cultivation; every one of them was above the Golden Body Realm!]

["The sun must have risen in the west. You big brutes aren't drinking or sleeping in the middle of the night—you're actually writing?"]

[When the personal guards saw you approach, they explained.]

[They were not practicing calligraphy. They were copying their respective inherited cultivation methods.]

[Your extraordinary memory contained records of these personal guards' backgrounds.]

[You knew that they either had no descendants or that their descendants lacked Root Bone.]

[So, to prevent their inherited cultivation methods from being lost after their deaths, they had decided that each person would copy one tonight and carry it with them.]

[In tomorrow's battle, so long as even one person survived, he would be responsible for passing on everyone else's cultivation methods.]

["Though inherited cultivation methods are not passed to outsiders, brothers on the battlefield are closer than blood brothers. Learning from one another and passing them on causes no trouble at all!"]

[You walked over.]

[Out of a Martial Artist's professional ethics, you did not look at their cultivation methods, but something occurred to you.]

["Why go to such trouble? And what if—I'm saying, what if—none of you survive? Then staying up all night copying them would have been for nothing."]

[The personal guards looked at one another, their expressions equally helpless.]

[They knew that accompanying Sun Cheng'en into battle tomorrow as bait meant near-certain death.]

["How about this? I'll memorize all these cultivation methods for you. If I survive, I'll open a martial arts school and carry forward your inherited cultivation methods. What do you think?"]

[Upon hearing this, everyone suddenly understood.]

["Oh! How did we forget Military Advisor Chen's immortal brain? He can remember it after one look!"]

[After obtaining their permission.]

[It did not take you much time to memorize all their cultivation methods.]

[Shen Qingshan had been right. For an ordinary Martial Artist to possess a high-grade cultivation method was already an extraordinarily deep blessing.]

[There were thirty or forty cultivation methods here, covering External Cultivation, Internal Cultivation, Heart Methods, and martial techniques. Yet only two were mid-grade; all the rest were low-grade.]

["I have memorized them all. I will not fail your trust!"]

[You cupped your fists in salute and bowed deeply.]

[The next day.]

[The South Gate swung open. Sun Cheng'en wore General's Armor, held a Two-Zhang Spear, rode a Red-Maned Steed, and was followed by eight hundred personal guards!]

["Bandits! I, Sun Cheng'en, am here! If you want battle, then battle—but do not harm a single one of my city's people!"]

[Sun Cheng'en led his troops out of the city and charged into the enemy formation, crushing all before him.]

[He was a Spirit Condensation Realm Martial Artist. Even facing thousands upon thousands of troops, he slaughtered them all the same.]

[But soon, several Martial Artists of the same level charged out from the enemy ranks.]

[As they fought, their martial techniques collided. Even the lingering shockwaves possessed the power to sweep across the eight directions; no one else could get near them.]

[Sun Cheng'en's personal guards were valiant and battle-hardened, their courage unmatched.]

[They shattered the enemy army and disrupted its siege formation, forcing the enemy to temporarily gather all its soldiers and halt Sun Cheng'en's assault.]

[Taking advantage of the weak defenses at the North Gate, twenty thousand soldiers removed their armor, changed into ordinary clothing, blended among the city's civilians, and left through the North Gate according to Sun Cheng'en's orders.]

[After leaving the city, a soldier asked you.]

["Military Advisor Chen! We've already left the city. What do we do next?"]

[The soldiers still did not know that Sun Cheng'en had sent them out merely to escape. There was no next step.]

[Your silence, along with that of the officers, made them understand soon enough.]

["Good, good, good! In my life, Li Ergou actually got to have a great general cover my retreat? Hahaha! No one would believe it if I went home and told them—then I won't go home!"]

["If the general doesn't leave, neither will we!"]

["Brothers, grab your weapons!"]

[The civilians continued fleeing for their lives, but the soldiers chose to turn back.]

[No matter how the commanders berated them, even drawing their disciplinary swords, not a single man obeyed.]

[In the end, even those commanders turned around and charged back with them.]

[The Suzhou Border Army lived and died together!]

[Their hot blood set yours ablaze as well.]

["Damn it! So what if I draw a few fewer traits? I'm fucking burning myself to ashes!!"]

[You had just been about to charge into the battlefield when two men seized you from either side.]

[You recognized them. They were Sun Cheng'en's tent guards.]

["What are you two doing?!"]

["The general has ordered us! If the military advisor overestimates himself and tries to join the battle, we are to drag you away by force!"]

["No! Let go of me! General! I can't leave! General! I want to live and die together with the border army!!"]

[Those two tent guards were both in the Spirit Gathering Realm. They carried you away like a chick.]

[The fire in you had barely risen before the two of them smothered it.]

[Unexpectedly, the Dashiguo Army had set an ambush in the north.]

[When the fleeing civilians passed through, masses of enemy soldiers surged out and began slaughtering them indiscriminately.]

[Seeing this, the border army at the rear hurriedly dispatched a group to provide support and escort the civilians away.]

[But a squad from the Savage Elephant Army was also stationed here. The border army could not resist them head-on, and casualties soared.]

[The two tent guards died while protecting you.]

[Small and helpless, you darted about the chaotic battlefield, fleeing in every direction.]

[By now, you were no longer burning at all. You only wanted to live.]

[Stray arrows flew like rain, blades flashed and swords gleamed, and giant elephants roared.]

["What do I do, what do I do..."]

[You felt as though you could die at any moment.]

["Boss Chen! Get over here!"]

[You heard Old Liu's voice.]

[Following the sound, you saw him crawl into the asshole of a dead giant elephant!]

["Uh..."]